The INWORK Project: Industrial Relations and Social Dialogue Program of the European Union – Directorate-Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion.

INWORK core objective was to improve expertise in industrial relations and promote the exchange of information among parties actively involved in industrial relations. In particular, the project explored industrial relations of Craft enterprises sector and their employees. In particular, the project team implemented a study at two different levels. Top-down: to understand the impact of Craft enterprises in the economy. Bottom-up: to identify the best practices of leadership in the representation of craftsmen.

The project has been elaborated according to the experience of all the partners involved. The partnership was heterogeneous involving organisations linked to industrial relations as: Research centres and institutes, Non-profit making organisations and Craft Unions in order to represent all the target groups and stakeholders and coming from 6 countries: Italy, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Hungary, Greece.

The partners have identified two different target groups: the workforce that is employed in SME and specific categories of workers of Craft enterprises who are represented by trade unions of different sectors.

Finally, the project results have been: 1. Identification, collection and analysis of the available best practices of the industrial relations of Craft enterprises in Europe to compare the different situations in the participating countries. 2. Exploitation of the identified best practices to raise the knowledge about the impact of SME’ craft in EU economy and the leadership in the representation of craftsmen work. 3. Organisation of an international conference in Alessandria presenting the study results and sharing experiences and best practices and involve counterparts, stakeholders and other EU countries.

According to the Call for proposal, the project aimed to improve expertise in industrial relations and to promote the exchange of information among parties actively involved in industrial relations. At present, debates on industrial relations and representation of Craft enterprises are focused on administrative aspects: protection and regulation. But, assuming as point of reference the overall competitiveness and growth of the economy, the project investigated the contribution of Craft enterprises to this growth and their impact on the industrial relations and representation on the rest of the economy considering the equality of people respect their work.